Tag Archives: Marbella

Our second day in Spanish paradise found us in Herez, a small town an hour and half or so from Marbella. It was a gorgeous drive- many parts reminded us of West Texas, where it begins to get pretty around Big Bend.

The reason we went to Herez was to tour the Tio Pepe winery, which specializes in sherry and brandy. The company has been there forever and its facilities are gorgeous.

Uncle Pepe himself!

This building was built by Eiffel!

inside of the Eiffel building with the special yellow dirt that keeps the humidity right for the wine

100,000 barrels of wine on the wall, 100,000 barrels of wine---everybody now!

beautiful wind vane at Tio Pepe

Of course, at the end of our tour we were served some delicious glasses of wine and also directed to the gift shop. Mark bought two bottles of brandy and then tried to take them on the plane in his carry-on luggage. That didn’t go over very well with Spanish FAA, but at least they let him go check the bag rather than tossing the bottles in their own bags.

Sunday we stopped at a pretty little village high up in the hills, just outside of Malaga. It was called Mijas and offered some more incredible views. We ate one last meal with our fabulous hosts at a tiny tapas bar, and then headed for the airport.

view from Mijas

I think i love tapas so much because it's like eating from everyone else's plate, but no one cares.

The vacation buzz came to an abrupt end when we arrived at the Malaga airport two hours before our flight to discover that our flight was delayed three hours. Five hours is a llllooooonnnnnggggg time to hang out in the airport. But we came home to a nice surprise. Tune in again tomorrow to hear more about that!

Yesterday we decided to go to England! We drove an hour to Gibraltar to get a piece of the rock. It was fun to see English street signs and red telephone booths. Of course we stopped at a convenience store to buy Cadbury’s chocolate and various other things that we can’t find in Paris.

Our next stop was Point Europa, which is the southernmost point of Europe. We waved at Morocco. Voila.

No, Martha- the sea is the other way.

It rocks!

From Point Europa we drove even higher up the rock, to an incredible cave, one room of which was used as a hospital in the first World War.

This was the space used as a hospital. Not sure what kind of shows they put on there now- many of the chairs were being dripped on.

At this level and higher we were also able to hang out with small apes that roam freely up there. I’m sure there was some good information posted about what kind of apes these were and why they were there, but unfortunately, all I got were my pictures.

Finally, we walked through tunnels that were dug by hand from which cannons were fired at enemies coming in from the beach.

The views from the top were breathtaking.

We drove back to Marbella and had a late lunch at this little place on the beach. The thick seafood and rice soup was amazing, as was the ice-cold beer.

You park the car on a dirt road and then walk down to this restaurant.

Today we go to Jerez, where we will tour a vineyard where sherry is made. Yum.